Changes in the volatile fingerprint of the edible mushroom Agaricus bisporus occurring during storage

Edible mushrooms are valuable healthy foods, being a rich source of vitamins, proteins and minerals. They are also low in calories and fats [1]. Agaricus bisporus (J.E. Lange) Pilàt, better known by its French name “champignon”, is a fungus highly valued and widely traded across the world, certainly the best known after the porcini mushroom. Its texture and flavor consists of nonvolatile and volatile compounds such as a- tocopherol, phenols, ascorbic acid, b-carotene and lycopene [2] and small molecules with eight carbon atoms such as 1-octene-3-ol, 3-octanone and 3-octanol.Their culinary and commercial value is mainly due to their organoleptic properties such as their aroma and flavor. The taste of edible mushrooms is primarily due to the presence of several small water soluble substances, including 5’-nucleotides, free amino acids, soluble sugars and sugar alcohols [3]. In this work a headspace solid phase microextraction (HS-SPME) method coupled with GC- MS and GC-FID was developed to evaluate the change of the volatile fingerprint of the edible mushroom Agaricus bisporus occurring during storage. The components were extracted by means of a 65 μm polydimethylsiloxane/divinylbenzene (PDMS/DVB) fiber. Once tested the ruggedness of the method developed, a series of samples stored under different conditions were evaluated, in order to monitor possible changes of the volatile fingerprint or formation of off-flavours.